The purpose of our essay is to investigate the discourse of foreign policy from a Swedish perspective. In this essay we explore how Swedish politicians discuss the Swedish foreign policy of today and of the future. The study is based on interviews with seven members of The Advisory Council on Foreign Affairs of the Swedish Riksdag. The point of departure for our analysis of these members’ narratives is discourse analysis and discourse theory. In history Swedish foreign policy has been associated with neutrality and the work for important values such as human rights and disarmament. However, as a consequence of the development of a common foreign and security policy for Europe, there is a debate concerning what Swedish foreign policy is today. Furthermore, there is today an academic debate about how foreign policy is to be understood in a more and more internationalized world. This makes our study of the understanding of foreign policy of Swedish politicians highly legitimate.

In our study we show that both unity and difference of opinion is present in the discourse of foreign policy that the interviewees give voice to. During our interviews we found that foreign policy was defined as relations between states and that the right of states to pursue foreign policy was commonly seen as derived from the thought that citizens of a state share a common identity. During the interviews it also became obvious that feelings of belonging to a certain group were thought to affect European foreign policy cooperation. To sum up the results of our study we conclude that a deeply rooted sense of identity seem to be very influential when it comes to the understanding of foreign policy.

According to The Economist Democracy Index, Tunisia was at 2.79 during 2010 and by the end of 2011 they had climbed up to 5.53. Therefore Tunisia entered a new category, called hybrid regime. This was a step closer to a more democratic regime. Rustow Dankwart, Shain Yossi and Linz J. Juan would say that the interim government and the political actors within it had a significant impact on Tunisias increase in democracy index. Therefore the aim of this study took the shape of a theory consuming case study. The purpose of the study was to analyze the political actors and the interim government importance during the Tunisian democratic transition, with the delimitation to the year 2011. The results firstly showed us the categorization hardliners within the authoritarian coalition in combination with radicals in the oppositional coalition. During the second interim government the categorization changes from hardliners to softliners. During the third, we see a glint of moderates within the opposition. Secondly, the results showed us that there is evidence of an opposition-led, power-sharing and incumbent-led caretaker regime in Tunisia. The study discusses two conclusions about political actors during the transition. Firstly, the importance of radicals within the opposition and secondly the importance of the authoritarian coalition changing from hardliners to softliners, which allowed the country to transition. Within the categorization of the interim government we have come to the conclusion that the opposition-led government played a significant role in the Tunisian transition.

Central Asia is a region strategically located on the crossroads of the two continents. The region is represented by five states (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) with different level of economic development and with the population amounting to over 60 million people. The region is rich in energy resources, represented by oil, gas, coal and hydropower resources.

The thesis analyses, assesses and scrutinises one of the topical issues of the contemporary international relations - cooperation between the European Union and Central Asian states before and after adoption in June 2007 of the ‘European Union and Central Asia: Strategy for a New Partnership’, an important political document in the history of relations between the two parties.

The new stage of cooperation is analysed more comprehensively accentuating priorities set in the Strategy. Analysis of the current state of affairs is conducted concerning some important issues of the Strategy related to regional cooperation between Central Asian states, such as integrated water management and development of hydro-energy system, issues of diversification of hydrocarbons supply routes from the region to Europe and provision of energy security, etc.

Issues of cooperation between the European Union and Tajikistan are analysed as a case study. State of affairs between some of the European Union member-states and Central Asian countries is characterised.

The thesis also scrutinises other regional/international actors engaged in cooperation with Central Asia (such as China, Russia, the US, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, etc.) and their potential for interaction with the European Union for more effective joint solution of the problems existing in the region is assessed.

In the conclusion, development of cooperation between the European Union and Central Asian states is scrutinised, the problems and their possible solutions in this regard are analysed, and the recommendations for increasing effectiveness of cooperation between the two parties are presented.

The European Union’s foreign policy in Central Asia is interpreted from perspective of the theories of international relations namely neorealism, neoliberalism and constructivism in the end of every chapter.

Central Asia is a region strategically located at the crossroads of the two continents: Asia and Europe. The region is represented by five states (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) with different level of economic development and with the population amounting to over 60 million people. The region is rich in energy resources represented by oil, gas, coal and water resources.

The thesis analyses, assesses and scrutinises one of the topical issues of the contemporary international relations - cooperation between the European Union and Central Asian states before and after adoption in June 2007 of the ‘European Union and Central Asia: Strategy for a New Partnership’, an important political document in the history of relations between the two parties.

The new stage of cooperation is analysed more comprehensively accentuating priorities set in the Strategy. Analysis of the current state of affairs is conducted concerning some important issues of the Strategy related to regional cooperation between Central Asian states, such as integrated water management and development of hydro-energy system, issues of diversification of hydrocarbons supply routes from the region to Europe and provision of energy security, etc.

Issues of cooperation between the European Union and Tajikistan are analysed as a case study. State of affairs between the Central Asian states and the European Union Member States actively cooperating with these countries is characterised.

The thesis also scrutinises other regional/international actors engaged in cooperation with Central Asia (such as China, Russia, the US, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, etc.) and their potential for interaction with the European Union for more effective joint solution of the problems existing in the region is assessed.

In the conclusion, development of cooperation between the European Union and Central Asian states is scrutinised, the problems and their possible solutions in this regard are analysed, and the recommendations for increasing effectiveness of cooperation between the two parties are presented.

The European Union’s policy in Central Asia is interpreted from perspective of the theories of international relations namely neorealism, neoliberalism and constructivism in the research.

Central Asia has been the focal point of intense geopolitical power struggle throughout history. At the dawn of the 21st century, Central Asia has undergone major changes as the European Union and the China-led Shanghai Co-operation Organization have emerged as two normative powers, both seeking to influence the patterns of security governance in the region. This study aims to delve deep into ‘the black boxes’ of the EU’s and China’s foreign policies toward five CA republics. It starts from the premise that the bulk of research on Eurasian politics tend to concentrate mostly on realist and traditional geopolitical doctrine, which seem to have failed to properly explain the normative and ideational transformations that have taken place in the region as a result of the presence of these two emerging normative agents. By interweaving both realist and constructivist theories of International Relations (IR) into a new all-encompassing analytical framework, termed “meta-geopolitics”, the thesis seeks to trace and examine how geopolitical as well as normative components of the EU and Chinese regional strategies have affected the contemporary power dynamics in the post-Soviet space. I argue that, in contrast to the geopolitical struggle during the 19th and 20th centuries, a clash of normative powers is brewing in the region between China, under the aegis of the SCO, and the EU. The research also concludes that China has relatively been in a better position in comparison to the EU to render its policies as feasible, effective and legitimate to the Central Asian states.

The main purpose of our paper is to reconstruct the intervention logic of the Swedish government's proposal to introduce a tax deduction for homework help. Furthermore, we also intend to outline the perceived impacts of this tax deduction in the municipality of Linköping. Our material consists of the government bill regarding the tax deduction, the parliamentary debate which preceded it as well as interviews with key people in the municipality of Linköping. In our study and in the light of Matthew Clarke’s theory of neo-liberalism within education policy, we also ask ourselves if the intervention logic behind the tax deduction and its perceived effects can be seen as a manifestation of neo-liberalism. To obtain our results, we have used Evert Vedung’s intervention logic model and side-effect model. The results are discussed in our analysis chapter which leads us to the conclusion that the tax deduction in some respects can be seen as a manifestation of neo-liberalism. The paper concludes with suggesting further research, in which we propose that the phenomenon should be investigated further and from different approaches.

The present article focuses on problematizing the European Union’s claim that intercultural dialogue constitutes an advocated method of talking through cultural boundaries based on mutual empathy and non-domination. More precisely, the aim is to analyze who is being constructed as counterparts of the intercultural dialogue through the discourse produced by the EU. To answer the question, European policy documents on intercultural dialogue are analyzed drawing on a postcolonial perspective. As an interpretation, the EU appropriates historical symbols and colonial figures of thought to authorize its current objectives. Within the realm of the EU, Europeans are portrayed as having an a priori historical existence, while the ones excluded from this notion are evoked to demonstrate its difference in comparison to the European one. The results show that subjects not considered as Europeans serve as markers of the multicultural present of the space. Thus, intercultural dialogue seems to consolidate differences between European and Other - the ‘We’ and ‘Them’ in the dialogue - rather than, as in line with its purpose, bringing subjects together.

Objectives: Several studies have sought to analyze the cost-effectiveness of advanced home care andhome rehabilitation. However, the costs of informal care are rarely included in economic appraisals ofhome care. This study estimates the cost of informal care for patients treated in advanced home careand analyses some patient characteristics that influence informal care costs.Methods: During one week in October 1995, data were collected on all 451 patients in advanced homecare in the Swedish county of O¨ stergo¨ tland. Costs were calculated by using two models: one includingleisure time, and one excluding leisure time. Multiple regression analysis was used to analyze factorsassociated with costs of informal care.Results: Seventy percent of the patients in the study had informal care around the clock during theweek investigated. The patients had, on average, five formal care visits per week, each of which lastedfor almost half an hour. Thus, the cost of informal care constituted a considerable part of the costof advanced home care. When the cost of leisure time was included, the cost of informal care wasestimated at SEK 5,880 per week per patient, or twice as high as total formal caregiver costs. Whenleisure time was excluded, the cost of informal care was estimated at SEK 3,410 per week per patient,which is still 1.2 times higher than formal caregiver costs (estimated at SEK 2,810 per week per patient).Informal care costs were higher among patients who were men, who were younger, who had their ownhousing, and who were diagnosed with cancer.Conclusions: Studies of advanced home care that exclude the cost of informal care substantiallyunderestimate the costs to society, regardless of whether or not the leisure time of the caregiver isincluded in the calculations.

The starting point of this study is theories of European integration, which are used to formulate different scenarios about the future of the European Union. This is made in regards to the eurocrisis which has intensified the discussion about how to change the construction of the euro to overcome the economic difficulties that has arisen. In this study, four different scenarios are presented: "An updated Europe", "A new Europe", "The death of the euro" and "Goodbye Greece". The first two scenarios takes its starting point in the neofunctionalist theory of European integration and describes how the EU might increase its level of integration in different ways. We can either see a development where the EU tries to improve the implementation of the rules that are meant to coordinate the member states’ economic policy, or we might encounter a more advanced integration where fiscal policy competences are transferred to the EU-level.

The latter scenarios, however, takes another theory in to account, liberal intergovernmentalism, and describes how the eurozone might be fragmented in different ways due to conflicts of interest between lenders and countries that has to receive loan-packages. In the third scenario the euro stands in front of a collapse. This is connected to a situation where Spain, which is one of the largest economies in the EU, is starting to have similar problems as countries like Grecce, Ireland and Portugal. The fourth scenario describes a more ordered progress where Grecce, as part of a joint decision with the other EU-members, decides to abolish the euro as their currency. This is a way for the EU to reduce its economic burden, in the same time as Greece are given an opportunity to use an independent monetary policy to cope with their problematic situation.

In May 2017 Sweden’s first cultural heritage bill was approved by Sveriges riksdag, Sweden’s national legislature. Before being approved of, the bill had received a great amount of attention in the public debate from different parties like the media, the civil society and the political parties. The cultural heritage bill is unique since it is the first time in Swedish history that cultural heritage policy has been presented through a separate bill by the government, instead of being part of a bigger cultural bill. This study will examine the bill closer with the help of the British philosopher Roger Scruton’s concept oikophobia. Examination is relevant because of the public debate surrounding the bill and because of the fact that oikophobia concerns inheritance and home. The aim of this study is more precisely to examine Sweden’s first cultural heritage bill through a qualitative text analysis in order to see if the bill is to be considered oikophobic. To accomplish the study, oikophobia as a concept is operationalized to be used as an analysis tool when analysing the empirical material in form of the cultural heritage bill. The results of the study show that the cultural heritage bill is to be considered oikophobic. It is considered oikophobic mainly because of its relativizing attitude towards the own cultural heritage and the own nation.

Linköping University, Department for Studies of Social Change and Culture, Department of Culture Studies. Linköping University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Linköping University, Department of Social and Welfare Studies. Linköping University, REMESO - Institute for Research on Migration, Ethnicity and Society.

Is partnership as an organisational principle a way to overcome the limitations of project-organisation and its focus on short-term outcomes? Or is the interest in partnership organisations only an expression of a trend or a fashion in the growing market for organisational development in complex situations? In this book 14 scholars get new data and make careful analysis of the partnership organisation both in theory and in practice. They analyse the effectiveness of the partnership organisation in implementing changes and innovation with long-term effects rather than short-term results. The ambition is to address practical dilemmas and problems in the partnership organisation by using different theoretical perspectives - theories about organisational learning, strategies for change, power and empowerment, gender analysis, governance and participation etc. The research presented is valuable in order to achieve deeper understanding of the pros and cons with the partnership organisation. When can it be useful? What kind of problems can be addressed? Which conditions are necessary if the partnership model is to be used? Editors are Lennart Svensson, professor of sociology at the University of Linkoping, Sweden and Barbro Nilsson, Ph.D. and lecturer of pedagogic at the Institution of Behaviour Science learning at the University of Linkoping. Also contributing are Ken Caplan, Leda Stott, Erik Lindhult, Ingela Malqvist, Marianne Parmsund, Ann-Christine Larsson, Maria Bogren, Sofia Wistus, Ragnar Andersson, Hanna Westberg, Anette Scoppetta and Gun Hedlund.

18.

Andréasson, Ester

Linköping University, Department of Management and Engineering, Political Science. Linköping University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

We live in a society where the importance of digitalisation grows in every day life as well as in the workplace. In this dissertation the development of the digitalisation of public administration is studied – this development is usually referred to as egovernment. The main focus of the analysis in this dissertation is to gain a better understanding of the meanings of values in these digitalisation processes in public organisations. Three qualitative, interpretative case studies make up the foundation for this analysis. The first case is an analysis of Swedish e-government policies. The two other cases focus on organisational practices in public administration; the County Council of Östergötland and the Swedish Social Insurance Agency. These case studies have been based on interviews, document studies and observations. Theoretically the analyses of the dissertation build on theories of public values, legitimacy and the interplay between organisation and technology. The analyses show which values are given importance in digitalisation processes and how digitalisation can affect basic democratic values in public organisations. The results of the dissertation can be summarised in three comprehensive conclusions: 1) The digitalisation of the public administration is context dependent and takes place in an interplay between technology, policy and administration and the specific values which constitute these different domains. 2) The development towards e-government comprises a multitude of values, and is inspired and shaped by different sets of values. 3) The digitalisation can influence the role of the democratic values in public organisations, and therefore affect the legitimacy of the public administration. The main contribution of this dissertation is a deeper understanding of what implications e-government reforms can have for the administrations democratic values and its legitimacy. Processes of digitalisation are not value neutral, but are booth shaped by and shape values in the interplay between technology, political goals and the administrations particular organisational forms. Hereby, awareness of the values of digitalisation becomes crucial when e-government reforms are initiated and carried out. Further research on how technology and public organisations shape each other can contribute to uphold the legitimacy of public administration in a digitalised world.

E-government is an area under strong development and the Swedish public administration is not an exception in that respect. There is a whole chain of processes connected with introduction of new technologies in public organizations – from policy decisions, to implementation and thereafter every day-practice. Political scientists are often interested in policy and implementation, but more seldom about how technology and organization interacts with each other. In this paper, I will argue for that we – in order to be able to study the introduction of new technology in public organizations – need to use theoretical concepts concerning all three areas of policy, implementation and practice, and also acknowledge the fact that they are linked together. Illustrating this theoretical discussion, results from a case study in a Swedish health care organization are used. The analysis concerns how e-government is constructed through the processes of policy, implementation and practice in the specific case. The overall conclusions are that the construction of e-government, from national policies to the everyday use of ICT systems, takes place in several steps and that the framework presented in this paper can guide us in the understanding of these construction processes.

21.

Andréasson, Ester

Linköping University, Department of Management and Engineering, Political Science. Linköping University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

After the use of the first nuclear weapons, during World War II, the world changed forever, as the balance of military power would no longer by measured by the amount of conventional weapons each state possesses. Alongside this, the world experienced a crude awakening to the catastrophic costs, for the environment and in terms of human misery, that the use of these armaments involved. In order to tackle the spreading of these weapons, with the aim to prevent further tragedies, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime (NNPR) begun to develop in the mid 1950s. Since then, the regime, together with its cornerstone, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), have produced outstanding achievements in the non-proliferation field, as well as being the source of glaring disappointments and tensions among states to the present day.

It is in this context that the following document uses regime theory, the framework that focuses on the study of why and how states decide to cooperate with each other, to present an analysis of the NNPR, understood as a series of overlapping, interlocking and mutually reinforcing agreements and mechanisms on the issue-area of nuclear activities among nations.

The study is driven by two research questions: 1) How can regime theory explain the longevity and broad acceptance of the NNPR/ NPT and what is its current state after the 2015 Review Conference?; 2) From the point of view of regime theory, in which way would an international effort towards demilitarisation be beneficial for the fulfilment of Art VI of the NPT, regarding nuclear disarmament? The research achieves the objective of deepening the comprehension around the success and broad acceptance of the NNPR and the NPT, while presenting a plausible alternative for an agreement on nuclear disarmament that could involve demilitarisation. This alternative is elaborated through a pathway suggested with the use of regime theory, specifically, with the use of the weak cognitivist approach.

Linköping University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Linköping University, Department for Studies of Social Change and Culture, Department of Culture Studies. Linköping University, Department of Management and Engineering.

In this thesis we investigate gendered dimensions of the war in the former Yugoslavia. We do this with the help of gender theory, as well as theories about the construction of identities and the role of the identity aspect in contemporary warfare. By combining these theoretical points of departure we hope to shed light on how gender can be used by political and military leaders and by the media in times of war. We explore how underlying gender assumptions in the Yugoslav society affected the course of war as well as how gender relations were altered just before and during the war.

We come to the conclusion that gender was central to the construction of collective identity in the Yugoslav wars. Women were pushed in to traditional gender roles and constructed as carriers of culture and mothers of the nation. Further the symbolic values associated with women made them vulnerable to sexual violence, since an attack against enemy women were considered to be an attack on the entire nation. The intersections between gender and identity aspects in the Yugoslav wars made women strategic targets of military violence.

The United Nations has a responsibility to combat acts of international terrorism, as they constitute a threat to international peace and security. In spite of this, there exists no generally accepted definition of the phenomenom within the UN. By examining resolutions on terrorism, this thesis aims to evaluate the UN’s policy on terrorism since the end of the cold war until 2003. The results show that the UN’s attitude towards terrorism eversince the end of the cold war has been condemning, but that the the events of September 11th 2001 has contributed to an even more firm approach to the problem. Furthermore, it can be established that before September 11th 2001, the UN acted in response to states being responsible for acts of terror. After that date the UN has had to deal with terrorism committed by unknown actors that don’t have any governmental connection.

This book highlights the role of entrepreneurship, social capital and governance for regional economic development. In recent decades, many researchers have claimed that entrepreneurship is the most critical factor in sustaining regional economic growth. However, most entrepreneurship research is undertaken without considering the fundamental importance of the regional context. Other research has emphasized the role of social capital but there are substantial problems in empirically relating measures of social capital to regional economic development.

The expert contributors to this work highlight the role of governance in regional growth, an area that has so far been relatively under-researched, underpinning their findings with new theoretical and empirical evidence. They conclude that the relationship between entrepreneurship, social capital and governance in factors affecting regional economic development are complex and interdependent, and that to influence these factors and the relationship between them, policymakers must have a long-term perspective and be both patient and persistent in their efforts.

This enlightening book will be of great interest to academics, students and researchers across a range of fields including regional science, regional economics, economic geography, regional planning, public policy, entrepreneurship, political science and economic sociology. Policymakers involved in regional policymaking from national down to regional and local levels will also find the book to be an illuminating read.

29.

Assmo, Per

et al.

University West, Trollhättan, Sweden.

Wihlborg, Elin

Linköping University, Department of Management and Engineering, Political Science. Linköping University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

A popular trend in today’s development debate is to highlight arguments favouring local production, local entrepreneurship, or the importance of buying local. But what do we actually mean when we talk about the term “local”. Similar to other popular development terms, the concept “local” seems to be used in a wide variety of meanings and interpretations. Furthermore, the term “local” is also often connected as an important component in the perhaps even more vague argumentations for sustainable development.

The conventional view of development, based on economic growth, promotes expansion in space and compression in time – a global market economy. This dominant technical-economic approach largely use general technological and institutional policies and solutions more suitable for urban large-scale structures. Such structures and policies thereby tend to hamper what often is seen as local development.

Initially, the article discusses the term “local” using a geographical time-spatial conceptual approach. With the use of empirical field studies focusing on rural local development in Sweden, the article thereafter apply the approach in an analytical framework to clarify and identify the meaning(s) of the term local, and identify the possibilities and constraints of processes of change in time and space – e.g. local development. In so doing, the time-spatial approach provide a possibility to identify the potential for alternative interwoven applicable local policy instruments and strategies.

30.

Assmo, Per

et al.

Linköping University, Department of Management and Engineering, Political Science. Linköping University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Wihlborg, Elin

Linköping University, Department of Management and Engineering, Political Science. Linköping University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

There is a common decrease in services in rural areas around the world. This is not at least the case regarding public services, since the decreasing population also decreases the resources available for local public services. The aim of this article is to critically analyse challenges of New Public Management in a rural area community in Sweden to discuss the complex double management role (as employer and as service provider) of the rural municipality. The core of NPM is based on a private sector ethos and is thus also heavily influenced by corporate sector techniques and management. In this paradigm cost effectiveness and efficiency become the dominant considerations for how the state is run. It becomes even more problematic in rural areas without a critical mass of customers (former citizens) and additional costs for transportation. This is illustrated by a discussion of local schools. The analysis shows that even non-monetary resources should be taken into account to reach legitimate policy changes in rural communities. This opens for a creative discussion on time-spatial localized policy-making including extending the interpretations of local resources.

The European Parliament (EP) is the scene where certain issues concerning over 500 million ‘Europeans’ are publicly debated and where politically relevant groupings are discursively coconstructed. While the Members of the Parliament (MEPs) pursue their political agendas, intergroup boundaries are drawn, reinforced, and/or transgressed. Speakers constantly take stances on behalf of groupings in relation to some presupposed other groupings and argue what differentiates ‘Self’ from ‘Others’. This study examines patterns of language use by the MEPs as they engage in the contextually and historically situated dialogical processes of intergroup positioning and stance-taking. It further focuses on the strategic and competitive activities of grouping, grounding, and alignment in order to reveal the dynamic construction of intergroup boundaries.

The study is based on a collection of Blue-card question-answer sequences from the plenary debates held at the EP in 2011, when the Sovereign Debt Crisis had been stabilized to some degree but still evoked plenty of controversy.

The analysis shows that intergroup positioning in the EP emerges as what I call a ‘collaborative competition’ between contradictory ideologies and political agendas. The MEPs strategically manipulate their opponents' prior or projected utterances in order to set up positions for self, a grouping he or she stands for, and thereby its adversaries. All participants engage in the maintenance and negotiation of intergroup boundaries, even though the boundaries hardly ever coincide between the different speakers. They discursively fence off some imaginary territories, leaving their adversaries with vague positions.

When asking Blue-card questions, the MEPs use a particular turn organization, which involves routine forms of interactional units, namely addressing, question framing and question forms, each of which is shown to contribute to stance-taking. A dynamic model of stance-taking is suggested, allowing for a fluid transformation of the stance object as well as the discursively constructed stance-takers.

While Blue-card questions are meant to serve as a structured procedure for eliciting information from a speaker, the analysis demonstrates that the MEPs accomplish various divergent actions that serve intergroup positioning. The dissertation thus contributes to the understanding of the discursive games played in the EP as the MEPs strive to construct social realities that fit their political ends.

The purpose of this essay is to examine the concept of ‘soft power’. Soft power is a relatively new term that was coined by the political scientist Joseph Nye in the year 1990. Since then this new term has changed how we today perceive international power. Using attraction and appeal actors use soft power to try to gain influence. The opposite of soft power, hard power, is another tool that states use to gain influence by trying to induce or threaten. These two tools and their usefulness for a state have become a topic of debate in the current international politics discourse.

The concept of soft power is constantly evolving and it is being shaped by experts and politicians around the world who embrace the term. Soft power does have its weaknesses; it is hard to measure and analyze, and it is also hard for a state to use soft power actively. But it has become a tool that is vital for states in the 21st century to maximize the effectiveness of one’s foreign policy.

The empirical material in this essay is partially based on Swedish soft power, but also includes various greater powers and their soft power. Using qualitative content analysis I have tried to discern what is relative to the essay and what are the most vital things to include.

The aim of this thesis is to understand and demonstrate the narrow ties between sport and International Relations. My purpose is to examine how Football especially is mixed with International Relations in many levels. The theoretical framework deals with the

nationalism theories. Nationalism theories have been relevant only for the last two decades. Nationalism has been developed in the two last centuries with the industrialisation. It can be considered as a political doctrine or ideology. The definition of Nationalism is not obvious because there are no founding theorist or text on it. This

process of nationalism induced nations to existence or self-determination. But extreme nationalism can be a danger. Nationals symbols have been created like language, food and drink, clothing, commemorative holidays, military heroes, flags, colours, and anthems.

Sport should not be forgotten in this Nationalism ideology. A qualitative study of all the books have been studied carefully. The thesis is based on a long historical approach that permitted to demonstrate the links between sport and International Relations. Pierre de Coubertin wanted Olympics to bring peace and without political means, but the situation changed rapidly everything and government policies were really influenced by sports. Not only totalitarian states but also democratic ones have been using sport for their propaganda to promote national strength. It has been like a trigger mechanism, everyone has understood how to use sport for diplomatic relations and it is a safer and harmless way than a war. Then a study of national identity construction will be the second goal.

Governments are now involved in sport to promote the prestige of a group. The other reason is to encourage a sense of identity, belonging and unity. Sport as a diplomatic tool can be considered like a public diplomacy to influence opinion. Football passion is shared by every citizen and helps us to understand the complexity of the world with its conflicting nations. In all this complicated situation, the Nordic nationalism is a fascinating new direction of peace and tolerance. For example, the Danes showed a festive way to support national teams that we can call a ‘sporting nationalism’.

Fair Trade is an international movement which aims to strengthen the livelihoods of producers in the South, and to give the opportunity for conscious customers in the North to buy socially and environmentally friendly products. The conventional trade system is criticised, as well as the efficiency of aid to support developing countries. The core idea of Fair Trade is therefore “Trade not Aid”, where marginalised producers are given the chance to improve their living conditions by fair wages, market access and improved working conditions. The aim of the thesis is to investigate the potential of Fair Trade to contribute to sustainable development and empowerment, which therefore also act as the theoretical frameworks for this thesis. Sustainable development is investigated by its division into economic, social and environmental sustainable development. Fair Trade is furthermore investigated through specific key elements connected to these theories, by performing interviews with managers and producers within five separate Fair Trade organisations in India and Sri Lanka. The main findings within this study reveal how Fair Trade does have the potential to contribute to sustainable development and empowerment to a certain degree. It is specifically prominent regarding social development and empowerment, while economic development occurs mainly on an individual level. The contribution to environmental development is also possible to detect, even though it remains clear how the initiative to do so might not always be fully related to environmental causes.

Linköping University, The Tema Institute, Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research . Linköping University, The Tema Institute, Department of Water and Environmental Studies. Linköping University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

The domestic endorsement and institutionalization of transparency is of central importance to the implementation of global environmental policies. Studies often contend that interaction with international organizations (IOs) promotes domestic support for transparency. This article qualifies this conclusion and suggests that the positive effects of interaction with international organizations depend on the quality of IO decision-making processes, defined as their fairness, predictability, and effectiveness. Unfair, ineffective, and unpredictable decision-making processes in IOs can increase corruption, reduce legitimacy, and make officials blame transparency for unsatisfactory decision-making. The results build on a study of government officials in developing countries responsible for managing funds from the Clean Development Mechanism and the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol. Our findings suggest that government officials who perceive IO systems as unfair, ineffective, and unpredictable cultivate an adversarial relationship with media and NGOs and become more critical of the benefits of transparency.

Sweden is home to five recognized national minorities, namely the Jews, the Roma, the Torne Valley Descendants (Tornedalians), the Swedish Finns, and the Sami population which also are an indigenous group. The Government`s Minority Policy aims at protecting and supporting the national minorities and the historical minority languages (Yiddish, Romani chib, Sami, Finnish, Meänkieli). The policy also promotes the right of youth, belonging to national minority groups in order to develop and streng then their cultural identity. This paper seeks to address the lack of involvement of Swedish Finnish youth in the so called Finnish Administrative Areas (Finskt förvaltningsområde, FFO), and how the Norrköping and Haninge municipalities tackle the issue.

In this paper, a reconstruction of the intervention theory is presented with inspiration sought from the ideas of Evert Vedung, in order to see if the intentions of the legislation are implemented. In accordance to the research on how the policy is designed, the democratic theory, the theory of participation, as well as the theory of identity will be linked together to the opinions of officials. This will be done in accordance to the reconstructed intervention theory, which will be used as a tool in order to show how the selected mechanisms relate in order to describe how the policy will receive an expected result. The intervention theory is a method which is meant to be in use during the evaluation of measures done by the public organization. I have conducted audits on how each FFO approaches the problem at hand using municipality documents relating to the Swedish Finnish youth. In addition, I have interviewed municipal officials in the FFO:s of Norrköping and Haninge with the aim to get an impartial over view on how they are perceived by the Swedish Finnish youth within FFO.

The result of my research indicates that local government activities in many cases can be linked to democracy theory, identity theory as well as participation theory. The mechanisms which were chosen used the recently named theories, are used to measure the municipalities offer of activities are language, interventions, activities and also the media. These theories have been used to select the mechanisms considered to be the most important deemed by the Law on the Protection of National Minorities (SFS 2009: 724[1]).

The main purpose of this paper is to examine how the regulatory environment of ”equality plans" are implemented at the municipal level of decision making in the school environment - in terms of both local politicians, school structures and management by teachers.

The paper will present how the implementation theory works in practice by examining two high schools in the Municipality of Norrkoping and see what differences exist in the implementation process of "equality plans" in schools with a variety of high and relatively low immigrant background among students.

We will present how it seems from different perspectives. Are teachers today controlled by public professional ethics or personal reasons, where those street level bureaucrats mainly act on feeling depending on the case? And how might this affect the law? Do they in fact understand, or have the knowledge and the willingness to implement?

In our study, we are using a comparative case study method with an interview guide. A comparison between the two school´s equality plan have been analyzed where we have developed key differences and similarities that we recognized regarding the subject.

The results of the study demonstrate that the context is very crucial to addressing these issues. By an apparent context that becomes more pronounced it forces the schools to think more strategically and behave more in a long term counterproductive way. We could also see that in the school environment where there are a higher proportion of immigrants induces an increased pressure to professionalism among teachers.

We therefore conclude that the implementation process is likely to be more successful if it has a strong professionalization among officials. This will lead to a greater understanding, deeper knowledge and willingness to implement the law.

The aim of this study is to discuss different motives behind the perceived transition from economic sanctions towards smart sanctions. The human rights aspect is also considered in the study, in terms of the wider humanism which is associated with smart sanctions. Does this relate to the fact that human rights have got an increased esteem in society, whereas economic, social and cultural rights be on equality with civil and political rights? Economic sanctions have been used extensively during the 1990s, both by the UN and by different regional organisations and countries. The hardest sanction regime has been imposed on Iraq. In this study, Iraq is used to highlight economic sanctions and the outcome is discussed in order to highlight the transition towards smart sanctions. Smart sanctions have been imposed three times till now, where Zimbabwe was the last example in February 2002. The effects of these sanctions are put in contradiction to Iraq, and the differences them between are discussed. Conclusions are that the ongoing transition and development towards smart sanctions have a multilateral character, where economic, efficiency, ideological, and humane motives areof considerable importance. The humane motives are of most significance for this development. Smart sanctions will continue to develop and be implemented, when international society find it necessary to maintain or restore peace or emphasise the existing rules or norms in the prevailing world. Despite the motives behind the transition towards smart sanctions, the dividing line between the two groups of human rights is still distinct. But due to new initiatives from both the UN and NGOs such as Amnesty International this dividing line is slowly starting to erase. It is not possible now to state that economic, social and cultural rights have got an increased esteem and be on equality with civil and political rights, but if the beginning consciousness is here to stay, it is likely to see an increased esteem in the near future.

Linköping University, REMESO - Institute for Research on Migration, Ethnicity and Society. Linköping University, Department of Social and Welfare Studies. Linköping University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

In the literature on political economy and public choice, it is typically assumed that government size correlates positively with public corruption. The empirical literature, however, is inconclusive, owing to both measurement problems and endogeneity. This paper creates a corruption index based on original data from a survey covering top politicians and civil servants in all Swedish municipalities. The effect of more politicians on corruption problems is analyzed using discontinuities in the required minimum size of local councils. Despite the fact that Sweden consistently has been ranked among the least corrupt countries in the world, the survey suggest that non-trivial corruption problems are present in Sweden. Municipalities with more local council seats have more reported corruption problems, and the regression discontinuity design suggests that the effect is causal.

It is Swedish government policy to use information and communication technologies to increase sustainability. This has implications for planning and local organization of communities. In the municipalities where most public services are provided, there are growing numbers of local contact centres (CCs) aiming to meet citizens’ needs for information and coordination of public services. The CCs localize public services and combine different services into a one-stop practice focusing on needs and demands of individual citizens and their unique situations. The municipalities hereby have to plan for service provision in new ways to meet more individualized needs that are also in line with improved sustainability. CCs are both local offices and advanced services on-line, as e-governmental services. E-government could be considered fast government, but this article aims to turn that obvious first impression upside down and discuss how e-government can slow down and make services more local, personalized and sustainable. Theoretically we take off from a time-geographical modelling of slow processes that has implication for slower, more sustainable development. Based on in-depth case studies of municipal CCs we argue that they are tools towards improved sustainability and localism, and that they are “slowing up” administrative processes. In particular, we point out that e-government has a potential to plan for, and promote, sustainability and slow local development.

Electconic applications for public administration and contacts between citizens and governments are developing worldwide. E-government is a concept tbat includes all forms of electronic applications used by govemmental bodies; e-services are those used for services to citizens, private firms and organizations. European Union ministers unanimously agreed on a declaration for e-government in 2009, aiming to 'use eGovemment to increase tbeir efficiency and effectiveness and to constantly improve public services in a way that caters for users' different needs and maximizes public value' (Ministerial Declaration on e-government, 2009). The policy illustrates great optimism for e-government in terms of efficiency and citizen value. However, wben implemented, there are great demands placed on professionals in public administration to take up and realize tbese expectations. They have the possibility to act as entrepreneurs, be creative and break organizational norms and boundaries, which is the focus ofthis chapter.

There are increased expectations about the potential of e-govemance to meet tbe still basic demands of sustained efficiency and democracy in public administration. The use of information technology (IT) is developed in close interplay between the organizational and technical components of a socio-technical network (Hughes, 1983). Public policy and administration also develop in relation to late modernization and globalization, and the increased use of IT is integrated in many other processes of change. Thus, few changes cao be related to the use of new technology a lone. E-government applications provided through technical and organizational applications are usually developed and designed to address a specific problem or issue in public administration. The technological innovations are thus not the primary focus; the aim is the problems dealt with by public administration (Wihlborg, 2000).

E-government development and the implementation of innovations thus take place in the crossing points between technology and professionals in administration. The cases we use to illustrate this here concern regional student counseling and applications to upper secondary schools in Sweden. The Swedish government has worked extensively on e-government, and there are several local and regional initiatives intended to increase the use of IT and the provision of broadband infrastructures (SOU, I 999; 2002; 2008). For 3 years (2003- 2005), the government had a special delegation, The 2417 Agency Delegation, to promote and stimulate the development and use of public e-services (SOU, 2004). Currently a Swedish governmental e-delegation reaching over all public administration has been formed to promote integration and efficiency, similar to the British arrangements (Dunleavy et al., 2007; Government Gateway, 2010). One example of this e-government development toward reforming the public sector is that several Swedish municipalities have implemented customer centers (see for example Bernhard, 2010).

The aim of this chapter is firstly to conceptualize a framework of innovative e-governance into e-service, e-administration and e-democracy as different contexts for entrepreneurial behavior, and secondly to use the approach to analyse and compare the implementation of the innovations of the common application systems for upper secondary schools in two Swedish regions.

49.

Bernhard, Iréne

et al.

Högskolan Väst, Trollhättan, Sweden.

Wihlborg, Elin

Linköping University, Department of Management and Engineering, Political Science. Linköping University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

The emerging information society challenges relations between public agencies and citizens in many ways. Providing e-services on the Internet and using other forms of information and communication technologies are basic components of e-government. E-services as such are innovations – even if the service itself existed before – as they are a new way of producing and organizing the service. For secure use and successful implementation of innovations in public contexts, the innovation must be considered legitimate and related to policies. The European Union and all other levels of government form policies, which are translated among the various levels to manage the useful, secure praxis of e-services. Translation in organisational terms takes place across governmental levels in the multi-level governance chain and secondarily from technical to administrative settings. Since the Swedish public administration relies on a dual steering approach, with strong, constitutionally mandated regional and local autonomy, such policies cannot be forced onto regional and local public agencies. Instead, European and national policy statements become soft policy instruments in the local context, and their implications rely on local uptake in the specific setting and on the competencies of the professionals in local public administration. Since this is a new, emerging field of innovative policy and practice, our analysis will build on an inductive methodological approach. The theoretical framework of policy and technology translation allows inclusion of this broad process of changes. Our focus here on the translation process is to highlight translations both across levels in multi-level settings and as constructions of meanings of security. The conclusion is that the organizational settings of multi-level governance are greater constraints than new technology for implementation of public e-services.

50.

Bing, Ennis

Linköping University, Department of Management and Engineering, Political Science.